Crystal Growth of Defect-Free Single-Crystalline Fibers in Super-High Supersaturation Solution.

Abstract

By controlling the supersaturation and choosing high-quality seeds, we successfully suppress the prismatic growth of the tetragonal potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) SCFs, realize the rapid growth along the [001] direction, and obtain SCFs less than 10 μm in width with lengths of centimeters. The experimental results show that there exist critical supersaturation points, 22.40% and 41.41% at 25 °C, for initiating the growth of KDP SCF on its pyramidal and prismatic faces, respectively, which are quite different from those of the bulk crystals. We use the mechanism of 2D nucleation on smooth faces to explain the peculiar phenomena, assuming that there is no 2D or 3D defect on the surfaces of the seed fiber crystal. The assumption is supported by AFM observation of the surface micromorphology of the SCFs. Our solution growth technique developed can be used to grow ultrafine SCFs unable to be achieved by existing melt growth techniques.